RealD Glasses: Avatar's Other Stylized Investment

Avatar was the first movie I ever saw in 3D, and it was, as reported pretty much everywhere, a quasi-transformative experience. But what struck me most about the 3D experience wasn't the artful layering of images on the screen or that scary-funny preview for Piranha 3-D. It was the quality and design of the 3D glasses.

I had been expecting those rinky-dink cardboard cutouts with blue-and-red cellophane frames. Instead, a nice lady handed me a pair of sleek, sturdy black frames that looked almost like Wayfarers, and when the lights went down and I put them on, I didn't feel like a fool or a geek. I felt almost cool, and when the movie (finally) came to an end and the audience, still in their glasses, sat up to leave, everyone else looked kind of cool, too. JFK sailing Nantucket Sound, Dylan circa Blonde on Blonde, Cruise in Risky Business: Wayfarer wearers, the lot of them, and there, in a crowded theater in snow-covered Brooklyn, a bunch of ordinary moviegoers joined their ranks. RealD, the company behind the glasses, probably could've gotten away with something cheaper and cheesier, but they chose to invest in style. A transformative experience, indeed.

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